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1. You ask what innovations the central universities have done. That’s a deflection, not an answer. The point I raised is simple: NLUs were born in the late 1980s with a model suited for their time. That model hasn’t meaningfully evolved in three decades. Infrastructure upgrades and the introduction of term papers are not pedagogical innovation. Oxford and Cambridge do continuously rethink and rework their systems, even while retaining the "tutorial/supervision" framework—they adapt to shifts in knowledge and student needs. That is what sustains quality. The question remains unanswered: what exactly have the NLUs done to innovate in pedagogy since their founding?

2. You equate "market success" with "educational success". That’s a dangerous collapse of categories. Recruitment patterns often reflect brand value and signaling rather than the intrinsic quality of education. Employers go to certain campuses because of a reputation built in the early years, and because of a filtering mechanism (the CLAT exam) that concentrates students with certain abilities. That doesn’t automatically prove that the pedagogy is robust or that it prepares students equally for practice, litigation, or service to the wider legal system.

And sure, perhaps the NLUs are the "best" the market offers right now. But is that it? Does the role of a university stop the moment its graduates find jobs? If employability is the only yardstick, then the institutes that train plumbers, electricians, and technicians deserve the same prestige as a university-after all, their students also go straight into work. We don’t treat them the same because we expect something more from a university: not just producing employees, but also advancing knowledge, driving innovation, and cultivating responsibility.

If anything, the heavy reliance on “market validation” makes the NLUs complacent—they cater to a narrow band of elite employers while ignoring the wider needs of society, polity, and economy. A good university produces employees. A great university produces, amongst other things, thought leaders.

3. You suggest that one’s quality of education is independent of the positions one takes. That is true at the level of abstract principle. But education is not value neutral. A legal education that trains students in critical thinking, justice oriented reasoning, and awareness of law’s social role cannot be wholly divorced from real world crises. If students can be fluent in Dworkin and ICL but collectively indifferent to an unfolding genocide, then yes, that raises questions about how deeply that education has shaped their intellectual and ethical outlook. It is not about enforcing ideological dogma, it is about whether education has given one the courage and clarity to connect law with lived human realities.

The example of UKLFI does not help your case. The point isn’t whether their members are "top-notch lawyers" in technical skill. The point is that law, divorced from ethical engagement, becomes technocratic at best and complicit at worst. You cannot brush that aside by saying education is just about "playing with ideas". That Wildean quip is useful, but ideas are not merely toys - they have consequences in the real world.

And by the way, this whole idea that education should cultivate not just cleverness but also responsibility? That’s not exactly radical. Max Weber was spelling it out over a hundred years ago in Politics as a Vocation with his ethic of responsibility. So forgive me if I don’t see "play with ideas" as the high-water mark of legal education.

And let’s be honest: if the benchmark is whether students are learning to "play with ideas", then NLUs have already failed the test. There is a genocide unfolding right now, and across the NLUs there has been complete radio silence. Forget about "playing with ideas", nobody even thought it worthwhile to issue a minimal statement. That silence tells us more about the depth of their education than any Wilde quote ever could.

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